A portion of the disclosure of the patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
This application is related to the following U.S. Patent Applications:
U.S. application Ser. No. 09/098,026 entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Discovering Network Devices Using Internet Protocol and Producing a Corresponding Graphical Network Mapxe2x80x9d, filed Jun. 15, 1998, pending.
U.S. application Ser. No. 09/098,027 entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Automatic Monitoring of Simple Network Management Protocol Manageable Devicesxe2x80x9d, filed Jun. 15, 1998, pending.
U.S. application Ser. No. 09/098,016 entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Sending Address in the Message for an E-Mail Notification Action to Facilitate Remote Management of Network Devicesxe2x80x9d, filed Jun. 15, 1998, pending.
U.S. application Ser. No. 09/098,031 entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Verifying Network Devices using Simple Network Management Protocolxe2x80x9d, filed Jun. 15, 1998, pending.
All of the above applications are assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and are hereby incorporated herein in their entirety.
The present invention pertains in general to monitoring of communication networks, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a method and apparatus for effectuating graphical display of multiple network monitors over multiple intervals on a single unified graphical display.
Communication networks are changing the way people communicate, distribute, and share information. There are many different ways information can be accessed, shared, or communicated on a network. For example, networks are used to access software applications running on a file server, to send e-mail to someone in another country, and to access information on remote computer servers. Networks consists of many different devices connected together in some form to allow one device to benefit from another. These devices include, but are not limited to switches, routers, repeaters, hubs, terminals, servers, queuing devices, and peripheral equipment such as printers, modems, and scanners. Communication networks allow the user to access remote programs and remote databases either of the same organization or form other enterprises or public sources. They also provide communication possibilities faster than other facilities. Because of these optimal information and communication possibilities, computer networks often increase the organizational learning rate, which many authors declare as a fundamental advantage in competition.
These benefits, however, do not come without their problems. Network systems can be very complex with complex problems which are difficult to identify and solve. To help identify network problems and solutions, network management tools have been developed to monitor networks and identify problems or potential problems associated with the networks. Frequently, these tools allow the user to view the results from a monitor on a graphical display. These displays, however, include only a single monitor over a single interval. To display multiple monitors separate displays are required for each monitor and interval.
It would be advantageous, therefore, to devise a method and apparatus which effectuate graphical display of multiple monitors having different intervals and on different devices.
The present invention comprises a method and apparatus for displaying multiple communication network monitors having multiple monitoring intervals on a single graphical display. A user, through an input device, selects an object relating to a network monitor to be displayed on a graph and a processor retrieves network data from a communication network pertaining to the selected object. The display values for a line on the graphical display represented by the monitor are calculated by the processor such that the line and any previously existing lines are coherent in that the displayed parameters are consistent across the lines.
Once the display values are calculated, the line is displayed on an output device. The user may additionally modify parameters associated with the monitor or add or delete a monitor. If the user modifies a parameter, for example the poll rate, the processor modifies the parameter and updates the display. If the user adds a new monitor, the processor verifies that the new monitor is consistent with current monitors, and if so, the new monitor is added and the graphical display is updated. Otherwise, an error message is displayed. If the user deletes a monitor, the processor verifies that the line associated with the monitor is not the last line on the graph and removes the line. Otherwise, if the line is the last line, an error message is displayed.